


Lion’s Roar

by BlackKyber



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender, klance - Fandom
Genre: Bilingual Lance (Voltron), Fluff, Gay Keith (Voltron), Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, M/M, My First Voltron: Legendary Defender Fanfic, Pidge | Katie Holt-centric, Sickfic, Voltron: Legendary Defender Season/Series 07, klance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-25
Updated: 2019-01-25
Packaged: 2019-10-15 03:16:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17520956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackKyber/pseuds/BlackKyber
Summary: After the battle with Sendak, and the last stand of the Galra Empire against the citizens of Earth, the Paladins of Voltron have come out victorious.However, no great victory comes without sacrifice, and the Paladin’s sacrifice comes in the form of their youngest member, Pidge. The small girl goes into a coma after the explosion that nearly killed them all, and, despite the best medical care and having the continuous support of her team and her family, she doesn’t seem to be making any noticeable improvement.Will she emerge triumphant, or, as painful as it will be, should the team begin the search for a new Paladin for the Green Lion?





	Lion’s Roar

“She’s ... she’s not doing so well ...”

 

Matt’s voice was wavering, and his facial expression made Lance believe that the man was on the verge of tears. So he looked away tactfully, and instead focused on Pidge’s face.

 

Things since coming home to Earth had been a seemingly never-ending nightmare, for the young Paladins of Voltron. Finding their beloved home under Galra occupation had been unnerving, made more so by the emotional weight of seeing so much of their planet completely destroyed.

 

But the team was made up of fighters, and they fought back.

 

After weeks of careful planning and meticulous coordination with the Galaxy Garrison, and the small group of rebel fighters that had emerged from the ashes, Voltron had been victorious. They had defeated Sendak and his minions, and freed Earth from the grasp of the evil Galra.

 

But right when they had believed they had a moment to relax, a monster, more powerful than any they had ever faced, fell from the sky. After an ardent battle, with the Paladins and the lions sustaining horrific damage, they had vanquished the beast, and had worked as a team to lift the giant and remove it from Earths atmosphere, before it self-destructed. The resulting explosion had encased all of the Paladins, sapping the power from their lions and leaving the people of Earth to watch, horror-struck, as the heroic beasts fell helplessly from space.

 

They survived.

 

Against all odds, all reasonable probabilities ...

 

They survived.

 

Weeks later, and all of the team was still in the hospital, recovering from their injuries. Despite the grimness of the situation, it SHOULD have been a happy time in their lives.

 

Earth was declared the official “base” for Voltron, and every day more and more off-world individuals came to visit the planet, to help repair, to set up shop, to share in the rapidly expanding technological and planetary defense advances.

 

Allura was happy in her new home; she, Coran, and Romelle had been made the official Altean ambassadors, and, once she was better, Allura would join the other two at the Garrison, helping to upgrade the ships and machines being built, and serving as diplomatic presence for interplanetary meetings.

 

Hunk and Lance now had their long-missed families around them, ecstatic to have the boys back home.

 

Keith’s mother, along with Kolivan, had arrived, having successfully reunited the Blade of Marmora. Keith was happy to have them back, especially his mother, with whom his bond was stronger than ever.

 

Matt Holt, Commander Holt’s rebellion-leader son, had found his way back to Earth, reuniting with his long-suffering mother and father.

 

But when he went to visit his sister, he had been left with a shock:

 

Pidge, was not doing well.

 

She had taken more of a direct hit than the others during that final confrontation, and, ever since team Voltron had been in the hospital, SHE had been in a coma. She had lost more blood than seemed possible, and that, combined with her internal injuries, made her body shut down in order to heal itself.

 

Matt was devastated, perhaps even more so than his parents. Pidge has gone to superhuman lengths to find him, after the Kerberos mission. Then Voltron had disappeared for three years, and Matt believed she was dead. Then to find out she had survived, but was in this awful state ...

 

Lance was, at the moment, the most recovered from his injuries. Allura had made it out of bed first, but Lance was the most mobile. He made his way down to Pidge’s room as soon as the nurse left him, surprised (but pleased) to find Matt home, sitting with his sister. The two shared a long hug, before Lance made his way to the girl’s bedside.

 

Had she always been so pale?

 

... Had she always been so small?

 

She had always been the smallest one of the group, but until this moment, Lance had never noticed just HOW tiny she was. Laying underneath so many blankets, she appeared to be no larger than a child.

 

A low shuffle at the door made Matt and Lance both turn their heads, and Lance did a double-take, surprised.

 

Keith stood in the doorway, his face a mask of muted pain, his dark eyes taking in the situation around him.

 

“Keith! You shouldn’t be here; you’re supposed to be resting!”, Lance exclaimed, going to take his arm.

 

Keith shook him off and took a few staggering steps into the room.

 

“So should YOU, but you’re here.”

 

Sighing, Lance took ahold of his arm again, and supported him as he made his way to one of the chairs. Keith sat in it with a grunt, taking a few slow, deep breaths to center himself.

 

“Are you alright?”

 

“I’m fine,” Keith said, somewhat irritably. He despised showing pain in front of others, thinking that such a weakness was unbecoming to the leader of Voltron. He turned his gaze towards Pidge, and, gently resting one of his hands on top of her hands, asked, “Any changes?”

 

Matt shook his head, looking down at the floor. “No. Same as yesterday. She’s alive, but ...”

 

He trailed off, and neither boy asked for clarification on his point.

 

After a few quiet moments, Keith said,

 

“Have you been talking to her?”

 

Lance looked at him, tilting his head. “Talking to her? What do you mean?”

 

“My mother brought me some books, and I’ve been reading up on it. People in a co— er, people in Pidge’s condition, they can hear things outside. They can’t respond but they can still hear, and understand. We should be talking to her; she needs to know that we’re here.”

 

Lance nodded thoughtfully. Then, he put on a smile and said, quite loudly,

 

“HEY PIDGE! It’s your pal LANCE here! We’re —“

 

“Lance! Seriously?”

 

“What?! You said to talk to her!”

 

“I said talk, TALK, not scream,” Keith said, rolling his eyes.

 

“Hey, man, I just wanted to be sure she’d hear me.”

 

“I think the entire HOSPITAL heard you, you idiot!”

 

Amazingly, miraculously, Matt started to laugh. It started off as a low chuckle, and quickly graduated to a bellowing roar. Keith and Lance looked at each other, startled; this was the first time they had heard anyone laugh in WEEKS. And it was contagious. Lance began to snicker, then Keith, and pretty soon all three boys were laughing, leaning on each other for support.

 

“What’s going on in here?”

 

Keith turned his head, smiling as Hunk rolled his way into the room.

 

Out of all of them, Hunk had suffered the most severe lower-body injuries. Both of his legs were bandaged from the knee down, and he had sustained some scarring burns on his lower right thigh. He was in a wheelchair; normally when he went on his rounds through the hallways, Shay would push it for him. Today, though, he was alone. Matt went to him and hugged him tightly.

 

Lance explained what they were doing, and Hunk nodded thoughtfully.

 

“That’s a good idea,” he murmured. He wheeled himself to the side of Pidge’s bed and took hold of one of her hands.

 

“Hey, Pidge,” he said cheerfully, gently squeezing her little fingers. “It’s Hunk. I woulda come sooner, but my legs are all messed up.” He glanced up at the tubes running into her arm, and made a face.

 

“I see they’re giving you top-notch food, here, huh?”, he observed, touching her feeding tube. “Well, don’t worry; when you’re better I’ll cook us up some REAL cuisine. A feast. I’ve already been to the kitchen here; they’re pretty well-equipped, for such a small hospital. The Garrison must have taken my suggestion from that time I was in here with the stomach flu.”

 

“You know what’s weird about that?”, Lance asked him. “We’ve been back on Earth for, what, like two, three months now? And the whole time we were in space, I was dreaming about our food, you know, like pizza, and nachos, and for sure my grandma’s home cooking. But we’re back, and now I dream about the food goo from the castle.”

 

Everyone chuckled, and a voice said, from the doorway, “I’ll have to tell Coran that; he’s been talking about it too. Although he DOES seem to like your, what do you call it? Booger and chess?”

 

Lance quickly got up and went into the empty room next door, bringing in an extra chair. He hugged her, then helped her into the chair, gently. Hunk rolled over to her and hugged her as well, then Keith followed suit.

 

“They’re called cheeseburgers,” Matt corrected her with a smile.

 

“Yeah, and don’t let him say that he likes them around Koltinecker. They’re made out of cows, like him.”, Lance contributed, grinning.

 

Allura scrunched up her nose. “Really? How vile.”

 

She turned and looked down at Pidge. “Oh!”, she exclaimed, sounding pleased. “She’s doing much better!”

 

Matt looked at her sharply. “Better?”

 

Allura nodded. “I can feel her energy; it’s surging. I have a feeling she’s going to open her eyes any day now.”

 

Out of all of the Paladins, it was entirely possible that Allura was experiencing the most frustration over Pidge’s condition. After the explosion, Allura had been left with a jolt to the head that, for whatever reason, knocked all of the life-saving techniques she had learned on Oriant clean out of her mind. She could still create wormholes, and operate a teleduv; but that was the (hopefully temporary) limit of her magical powers. One of the first things she had done, after regaining consciousness, was to make Coran take her to Pidge’s room. She had intended to bring her consciousness back into her body, the way she had done for Shiro. So naturally she was devastated to find that she couldn’t do that anymore. The others told her that it wasn’t her fault, that Pidge would just need time to recover naturally, but Allura was having a difficult time accepting this.

 

At her words, Matt got up quickly and walked over to the window, folding his arms and staring outside. He blinked rapidly; once again, he felt embarrassingly close to tears.

 

“I hope you’re right,” he finally answered, when he felt under control enough to speak.

 

“She is,” Keith said firmly, standing and putting a hand on Matt’s shoulder. “She’ll wake up, Hunk will make us up some food, and we’ll have a party. Hey, maybe we’ll even get that parade that Lance has been whining about for the past two years.”

 

“I haven’t been whining about it!”, Lance grumbled. “I’m just saying, it wouldn’t hurt the Garrison any to give us a parade. Nothing huge; just a few marching bands, some confetti, a gigantic float made to look like me stepping on Zarcon, the lions, and everyone cheering and giving us medals for being the most ultimate superheroes ever. That’s it.”

 

“You certainly keep your requests modest, don’t you?”

 

Everyone turned around. Shiro was standing in the doorframe, leaning against it and smiling.

 

“Hey, Shiro,” Hunk said. Everyday, Shiro had been going to each of their rooms every day, spending some time with each Paladin.

 

“Hey, everybody. What’s going on in here? I went to all of your rooms to visit you, but nobody was home.”

 

“Decided to have a little get-together,” Keith answered, with a small sigh.

 

“You all really should be resting,” Shiro said sternly. “None of you are at 100 percent yet, and wandering around like this really isn’t helping your recovery any.”

 

Everyone looked down at their hands guiltily, except for Keith.

 

“We had to come and see Pidge. She’s a part of this team, and it’s our responsibility to keep an eye on her.”

 

Shiro relaxed his stance a little and nodded. “You’re right. How is she? Same?”

 

“Same,” Matt said, gazing down on his sister. “But Allura says her energy is really good, so, hopefully —“

 

“If her energy is good, it’s because of all of us being here,” Keith reiterated, standing up. “We’re not just a team, we’re a family. And when one member of the family is struggling, it’s our job to help them in any way we can. I think — I believe that all of us should make the effort to come here, at least once a day; whether separately, or in groups. To talk to her. To sit with her. To let her know that she’s not alone.”

 

Shiro smiled to himself, feeling overwhelmingly proud. The Keith that stood before him was so vastly different from the hot-headed, reckless, impetuous young boy that he had first met so many years ago. Although he wasn’t that much older than Keith, Shiro had very much come to think of him, as a son. He had matured in remarkable ways, and Shiro was happy to see the type of man, the type of LEADER, he had become.

 

Instead of embarrassing him by saying this, however, Shiro just nodded, and said,

 

“Keith is right. You all have a bond that’s carried you through some of the darkest events in this universe. You all need to remember that, and focus on it all you can. Pidge needs your strength to help her through this. And you need to help each other, as well.”

 

—- — -

 

“Can you believe that?”, he asked softly, letting out a chuckle of disbelief. “Me, teach others how to fly?” He shook his head and sighed. “I guess I’ve come a long way from always crashing in the simulator.”

 

It was several days later, and Pidge still hadn’t woken up. The others had graduated to being able to leave the hospital, but, as per Keith’s suggestion, each still made their way back once a day to sit and talk to Pidge.

 

Sometimes Matt was there, most-times her mother and Commander Holt. Lance preferred to come now, a few hours before sunset, when he knew everyone else would be engaged elsewhere. He found talking to Pidge it be almost meditative, in a way, and a lot of what came out was somewhat personal.

 

Today, he was telling her his big news: Commander Holt had set it up to where Lance would have the opportunity to teach young cadets how to fly, a few days a week. The aero-technology was being stepped up rapidly now, on Earth, and Commander Holt felt it prudent to start teaching pilots as young as possible how to operate more complex vehicles. Of course, nothing was as advanced as the lions, but Lance had no doubt that within a few years, that would no longer be the case.

 

He sat up straighter, squeezing Pidge’s hand tighter, as he continued,

 

“But I guess the three of us have ALL come a long way, huh? I don’t crash anymore, Hunk doesn’t throw up anymore. And you — back then, you never even got a chance to pilot the simulator, did you? You should be teaching your own class: How To Be A Super Cool Pilot AND Have The Biggest Brain In The Galaxy 101.”

 

He looked down at her.

Still no change, no response.

“Or maybe you should teach a class in how to like, build robots.”, Lance went on, after a few quiet moments. “You should see all the new models that your dad and the Alcari have come up with. Robots for defense, surveillance, maintenance, I think someone even mentioned one for things like cooking.”

 

Here he paused, letting out a chuckle.

 

“Hunk won’t like that, of course. But honestly I don’t think we’ll ever see the day where a robot can out-cook him.”

 

He looked at her.

Still no change.

He felt slightly awkward, talking like this. It was weird, speaking to a person who couldn’t answer back. Still, he pressed on.

 

“You remember that place we used to sneak to sometimes, when we were cadets? The one with the arcade and the pizza bar? Me and Veronica went there the other day, and guess what they serve now? Tacos!”

 

No change.

 

“I remember you used to always complain about that, how you’d be able to concentrate on that one game better if you just had a nice juicy taco. What was that game? I can’t remember the name but I remember it had like, dragons or something. You — your name is still listed as the high score. When you get better, we’ll all go there, and you can play again. Okay?”

 

He sighed, looking out the window. The sun was much lower in the sky than he’d anticipated.

 

“Keith and I are doing good, too, in case you wondered. I don’t know if he told you anything or not, but yeah. It’s going slow, but I’m happy. I think he is, too. He’s working, too; teaching defensive arts to cadets. Sword fighting, martial arts, a lot of things. A few days ago, I finally told my mom about us. She made me invite him and Krolia over for dinner. THAT was interesting; my me-maw made chicken enchiladas and jerk-rice. I don’t think Krolia realized how hot it would be.”

 

No change.

 

“We should both probably thank you, huh? If — if you hadn’t encouraged me to get out my feelings and tell Keith the truth, we wouldn’t be together at all. Hey, if we ever get married, you should be my best man. Well, okay, you and Hunk, and Shiro, and Coran, and Romelle and Allura. But you can be the best-best man.”

 

No change.

 

“I should probably be going, Pidge. I’ll come back tomorrow. Goodnight, love you.”

 

He bent down and gently kissed her cheek, smoothing her hair back from her forehead as he did so. He passed by Allura as he made his way down the hall, stopping to exchange a few words with her before parting ways.

 

She often came at this time of night, with the mice, to read to Pidge. Since coming to Earth she had become fascinated with the concept of libraries, and, when not engaged at the Garrison, would spent hours reading up on the planet’s fascinating history. She was also enthralled with the genre of children’s books, especially the fairy tales, saying that they reminded her greatly of Altean folklore from when she was a child. Every night for the past week she had been reading Pidge a different story from Grimm’s Fairy Tales, insisting that Pidge would like them, despite being told that the stories were typically meant for a much younger audience.

 

Sometimes, Allura’s visits would coincide with Hunk’s.

 

Hunk was now teaching several electrical engineering courses a few days a week, and his classes became instrumental in helping young mechanics understand the ever-expanding Earth and alien-infused technologies that so many new machines and ships were being created from.

 

While he no longer needed the wheelchair, his injuries had left him with a permanent limp, forcing him to employ the use of a cane.

 

“It’s cool, though, because now I look like a widened old master. Like Yoda!”, he had said, proudly.

 

“Yoda? What is Yoda?”, Shay had asked, confused.

 

Hunk shook his head. “You have much to learn, young Padawan.”

 

—- — -

 

“No! Are you kidding?! Katie sacrificed EVERYTHING to find the both of us when we’d been lost in space! We’re not giving up on her now!”

 

It was another week, and Katie Holt still hadn’t woken up. The doctors had assessed that they were doing all they could, and now, Commander Holt and his wife were reluctantly looking into options for the future.

 

They had both come into the room during Matt’s time with his sister, sat down, and began to give him the hardest talk of their lives.

 

Matt was so outraged that he barely heard a word they said, but the salient points of their talk jumped out at him sure enough:

 

”She’s not making any noticeable change, son ..”

 

”As painful as it is, it’s time to consider what our next step might have to be ...”

 

“Son, please, listen to reason,” Sam said, putting a hand on his son’s shoulder. “She’s been like this for six months. Six months. Do you think she’d want to live like this? Or, ‘existing’ like this? Our baby was so vibrant, so full of love and life; and that’s how she should be remembered. Not like this. Not, like this.”

 

Behind them, Matt’s mother was sobbing, her head pressed down in her daughter’s covers. Sam looked at her, then back to his son.

 

“This is — we have time, of course, to fully discuss this. Go and rest, Matt. We’ll talk more later, after our heads are clear.”

 

But Matt pulled up a chair on the opposite side of his mother’s, and took hold of Pidge’s hand. His face was set, as he said,

 

“I’m fine. You take mom and put her to bed.”

 

“Son—“

 

“Just go,” he said, somewhat angrily. “Leave me and Pidge alone. We’re fine.”

 

—- — -

 

“Hey, that’s a nice shirt. Is it made of boyfriend material?”

 

Keith looked up from his plate, confused.

 

“Excuse me? What the heck is ‘boyfriend material?’ I’m pretty sure this is made from cotton.”

 

Leaning closer, Lance smirked and said, “Are your legs tired? Because you’ve been running through my mind allllll day.”

 

“Er, no, they’re fine. Are YOU feeling okay?”

 

Lance sighed. They were having dinner together at Keith’s place. Everyone else has been offered apartments within the Garrison, but Keith had declined this offer. He still preferred his independence, so he had chosen to move back out to the shack he had been living in since before they went to space.

 

His mother would visit often, as did the rest of the team. But of course, no one came to see him as often as Lance.

 

Tonight, Lance was trying out some of his new pick-up lines on him. He loved Keith, he really did, but the guy was as humorless as a fish sometimes. He had such a literal way of looking at everything, that Lance’s repeated jokes and innuendoes often went right over his head.

 

“C’mon, Keith, don’t ruin it for me. I’ve spent hours trying to come up with good lines for you. It’s super-hard, the least you can do is pretend to like them.”

 

Smiling, and pushing his chair out from the table, Keith said, “If you want to know what ‘super-hard’ is, come sit on my lap.”

 

Lance gasped and blushed. “Oh my god,” he said in a shocked half-whisper. “Who taught you that?”

 

“Thought of it myself, just now,” Keith said proudly. “Looks like I’ve been hanging around you too much.”

 

Both of them laughed, and Lance got up, beginning to clear the plates from the table. It was amazing, how good it felt to laugh, to relax, to be silly. They hadn’t been doing much of any of those things, since coming back to Earth, and the worry over Pidge.

 

He had to hand it to Keith; he was trying his hardest to hold the team together. It was difficult, with all of their schedules being so different now, bur several days a week, Keith plotted out a training regiment for them. It consisted of drill formations, exercise, and meditation. Although Earth was no longer under attack, he reasoned that this state of peace couldn’t possibly last forever. Therefore, it was necessary that they keep sharp, and vigilant, and maintain their skills, lest they become rusty.

 

Krolia was a huge help as well, having programmed many different battle simulations into the lions that the team could engage in.

 

Lance’s favorite part of any day, by far, was patrols. They would make a daily run to all the corners of the earth, checking in with the major bases and continuing to make sure all was right with their planet.

 

They also made runs off-planet, with the aid of a wormhole, to check in on members of the Voltron coalition. While there was not as big a faction as Sendak’s had been, the Galra empire still had new uprisings every day, and more attempts to take over new territories. Voltron was fortunate, in that the rebels and the Blades were able to vanquish most of these upsurgings on their own.

 

If they had used normal transportation to do these runs, it would have taken days, in some cases weeks, to cover the area that they did. But the lions could speed through location after location, time zone after time zone, in a matter of minutes. On Earth alone, Lance could go from being in Beijing one moment, to Jamaica within the next hour.

 

Once, just last week, he and Keith had managed to sneak away together, to Egypt. They had sat beside their lions on a sand dune, watching the spectacular golden sunset over the Nile river.

 

Thinking about that now, Lance stood behind him and wrapped his arms around his slim waist, kissing his neck.

 

“Your hair is getting longer,” he observed, as he continued to slowly kiss. “I love it. _Eres un chico guapo.”_

 

Keith smiled as he continued to wash the plates. He wouldn’t say this but he loved it when Lance threw Spanish into their conversations. Keith had been trying to learn the language, as Lance’s parents primarily spoke it, but so far all Lance would ‘teach’ him were random, flirty sayings. “Are you calling me names again?”

 

Lance leaned forward again and kissed his cheek, snickering a little. “No, actually. I just called you handsome. You’re welcome.”

 

“And I thought you hated my hair?”

 

“When’d I say that?”

 

“Pretty much all the time, since we went into space.”

 

“Forget what I said, babe. Your hair, like the rest of you, is gorgeous. _Te amo.”_

 

Keith blushed, and gently shook Lance’s arms from around him. “Stop it,” he mumbled, as he turned off the water.

 

Lance tried not to be hurt by the gesture. He had to continually remind himself that Keith was someone who had trouble expressing himself, and with giving in to any emotion that wasn’t anger. Years of being alone had dulled him to the concept of having a romantic life, and, despite how strong his feelings were for Lance, he still had difficulty responding to the little things. Hugs, kisses, compliments, Lance doing things for him —

 

Once, a few weeks back, Lance had gotten him a shark-tooth necklace that he had spotted in a little shop during a run to Hawaii, and Keith had been so flabbergasted that it was almost comical.

 

Lance understood, though, that what they had was going to take time, and a tremendous amount of patience, on both of their ends. So he took his arms from around Keith, thinking that he should leave before he did or said anything else to make him uncomfortable.

 

“I guess I’ll be going. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”, Lance said, pulling on his jacket. He headed for the front door.

 

“Are you tired?”

 

Lance turned slightly. “Why?”

 

“If you’re not, maybe you could stay a little longer? I mean you don’t have to, but, maybe we could watch movies or something? Or, um, uh, podemos besarnos? Um, porque, uh, porque ... te amo ... too?”

 

Keith was blushing hard, thinking that he had surely butchered that attempt at Spanish. But, thankfully, the other boy seemed to understand what he meant.

 

Lance turned fully around, and playfully yanked Keith into his arms.

 

“You’re learning,” he murmured, before pulling them into a kiss.

 

—- — -

 

Matt looked up in surprise. It was very late, going on one or two in the morning. He had been dozing beside Pidge, his head resting on her covers, when Hunk had burst into the room, walking much more quickly than one would suspect his cane could allow.

 

“Is she okay?!”

 

Matt looked at Pidge in alarm, then at the readout from her machines.

 

“She’s fine, Hunk. What’s wrong?”

 

“Oh my gosh, I just had the craziest dream! We were —“

 

“We were flying. All of us, in formation, together.”

 

Matt and Hunk turned their heads. Allura was standing in the door, wearing the same half-panicked expression that Hunk had.

 

“Yes! How did you know that?”

 

“We saw it too,” came a voice from the door. Keith walked in, looking like a man who was sleepwalking. Lance was with him, holding his hand, rapidly blinking the tiredness from his eyes.

 

“You all — did you have the same dream?”, Matt asked in awe.

 

Allura nodded. “I believe so. Pidge, she was in her lion. She was — she looked so happy.”

 

“Is it, er, do you guys think what we dreamt is symbolic, in a way? Maybe we saw her as flying because her spirit is about to — to —“

 

“Say that again, and I’ll kill you,” Matt growled at Lance’s words, baring his teeth.

 

“I’m just saying—“

 

“I KNOW what you’re ‘just saying’, and I’M saying for you to stop!”

 

“Hey, hey, quit it,” Keith said, stepping in-between the two of them. “Fighting isn’t going to help Pidge.”

 

“Well, What IS going to help Pidge?”, Hunk asked, softly, from behind. “Nothing else has. We haven’t, the doctors haven’t. What else can we do?”

 

Everyone went silent, feeling despair. At that moment, low but distinctive, a loud sound came through the open window. Keith, being closest to it, stepped over to it and looked out.

 

“Did you guys hear that?”, he asked, leaning out and looking around.

 

“Hear what?”, Matt asked, confused.

 

“Did you hear — that! That, right now!”, Keith repeated, as another sound floated up.

 

Allura approached the window and leaned out, tilting her head. “I hear it. It’s like .... like ....”

 

“Like a roaring,” Hunk and Lance said at the same time. Instead of coming to the window, Hunk sat down and closed his eyes, his brow furrowed in concentration. “But ... listen close. It’s not exactly coming from outside, it’s coming from our heads.”

 

Keith and Allura slowly came back inside the window, and, following Hunk and Lance’s leads, closed their eyes and concentrated.

 

“Hunks right,” Lance said, after a few moments. “And you know what? It’s a lion. It’s one of our lions.”

 

“It’s not mine,” Keith said, after listening more closely.

 

“It’s definitely not the Yellow lion,” Hunk affirmed.

 

“Blue doesn’t sound like that,” said Allura, closing her eyes. “It’s ... it’s got to be Pidge’s.”

 

Keith turned away from the window. “Why would hers be roaring?”

 

“Because it wants Pidge!”, Allura exclaimed excitedly. “Maybe it can bring her back!”

 

“How?,” Lance asked, skeptical.

 

“I think ... I believe they need to be together.”

 

Sticking his head out the window, and leaning forward, Lance began snapping his fingers and yelling “Here girl! Here Green! Come here!! Commere, girl!”

 

Several late night hospital drones looked up at him from the street below, and Keith pulled him back in.

 

“Lance, that won’t work. It’ll only respond to Pidge.”

 

The group went silent, and then Matt, clearing his throat, said,

 

“Then we need to bring her, to it.”

 

Everyone’s head snapped in his direction, mouths agape.

 

“H-how would we do that, man?”, Hunk asked in a hushed tone. “The lion hangar is at least a mile away, and she’s —“, he paused, stopping to gesture to Pidge’s breathing tube.

 

“It’s risky, I know. But we have to take a chance. And you know what? If we don’t do something, and soon, she’s going to die. My — my parents are talking about — about disconnecting her support, and l-letting her go.”

 

Allura gasped, and tears filled her eyes. The rest had a similar reaction; this was the first time they had heard of this, and it sent a rolling shock through everyone present.

 

Seeing everyone’s faces, Matt went on, quietly, “I’m NOT letting that happen. I’ve been observing the nurses when they change her tubes and wash her up each night; she can go for one hour without the oxygen tube. I think we could get her to her lion, before that time ran out.”

 

“Matt — what if this didn’t work? What if nothing happened, and she ended up dying anyway?”, Keith asked him somberly.

 

“Then at least we tried. It’s better than standing here, watching her waste away. She deserves better.”

 

“He’s right,” Lance said, his eyes bright. “So here’s what we’re gonna do: my land cruiser is down below, in the parking lot. That’s three floors down. There’s a elevator that leads directly to it, at the end of this hall. A nurse-drone patrols every ten minutes, at both ends. Matt, you carry Pidge. Keith, you go with Matt. Hunk, you take the far end of the hall, I’ll take this end. We have to temporarily disable the drones, so that they can’t go to Pidge’s room and report her missing. Once we do that, and we see them safely on the elevator, then, we join them. From there we go straight to the cruiser, then the lion. Is everyone clear on their mission?”

 

Everyone nodded in agreement, and Keith, in spite of his misgivings, had a small smile on his face.

 

“Since when have YOU been good at giving tactical orders?”

 

Smiling back, he answered, “I must have been hanging around YOU too long.”

 

—- — -

 

Getting to the lions was easier than anyone expected. They were fortunate in that Matt and Pidge’s parents were both occupied elsewhere at the moment, and Matt moved quickly enough with Pidge’s body to avoid detection from the other patients, or the drones.

 

Seeing him disconnect her from the machines and pick her up, however, had been mildly horrifying. Outside of the blankets, her arms and legs looked as skinny as twigs, and she appeared to have no more weight to her than a sack of laundry.

 

Still, Matt was delicate, and cradled her gently as the group drove over the rocky terrain on the way to the hangar. And it wasn’t the groups imagination; that roaring got louder and louder, the closer they got.

 

When they arrived, the green lions protective particle barrier was still up, and Matt approached it slowly.

 

“Listen,” he said, slowly, “I know I’m not Pidge. But I have her right here. We need to get her inside of you. Please, let us in.”

 

The lion didn’t immediately respond, and behind him, Keith said,

 

“Matt, I’m not sure this will work. We need to —“

 

At that moment, the green lion’s eyes lit up, and it let out a REAL, almost deafening roar. The particle barrier fell away, and it lowered itself to the ground, opening its mouth to permit them entry.

 

“I’ll go with Matt,” Allura said, stepping forward. “The rest of you stay here; we don’t want to overcrowd green.”

 

Allura took hold of Katie and carried her into the lion, as Matt went ahead and readied the controls.

 

“All set for takeoff. Is she okay?”

 

“Yes. Shall I hold her upright, or lay her down?”

 

“Upright.”

 

The lion emitted a low roar as it took off into the upper atmosphere, leaving a cloud of dust and the smell of ozone in its wake. Matt took a few moments to adjust himself to the controls; this lion had accommodated itself to Pidge’s body type, which was very small. Matt, being taller and with more muscle, had to hunch and crunch his arms and legs, in order to fit.

 

He took them on a face-paced spin around the entire earth, dipping in and out of the sky and space somewhat recklessly, in an attempt to jolt his sister awake.

 

“Please, Pidge, come on. Fight this. FIGHT it!”

 

Behind him, Allura was holding Pidge steady, but something had happened. It was odd, but, she could feel the lion speaking to her, the same way Blue spoke to her. There was a strange tingling centered in the back of her brain, humming, electric with energy.

 

Were her powers coming back?

 

She touched the wall of the lion, and realized with a shock that she could FEEL Pidge’s energy, glowing and vital, calling out to her. She concentrated her focus, and placed one hand to the wall, the other to Pidge’s forehead. Her body jolted backwards a bit, at this long-forgotten feeling of being a conduit between two life forms, but to her credit she held on.

 

When the feeling got too intense, she gasped, and collapsed back on the floor. Pidge, no longer being held up, slumped over as well.

 

Matt, hearing the sound, looked back in alarm. He quickly set the lion to autopilot, then made his way back to them. He set Pidge upright in her seat, then went to Allura, lifting her gently from the ground.

 

“Are you alright?!”

 

“I’m — I’m fine. I —“

 

At that moment, a low coughing made both of them turn their heads.

 

Pidge!

 

She was sitting up straight, one hand covering her mouth as she coughed. The other was gripping the armrest of her seat, seeming terrified.

 

“W-what doing — what — what are we DOING?!”, Pidge exclaimed, sleepily. “Matt? How are you flying green?”

 

“Pidge! Oh my gosh, PIDGE!”, Matt exclaimed, turning around and throwing his arms around her.

 

“Ow,” she muttered, shuddering from his forceful grip. He quickly let go, reminding himself that she was still weak. “Are you alright? Do you feel alright?”

 

“I feel — confused. What happened?”

 

“You were in a coma, Pidge,” Allura explained, hugging the small girl to her gently. “We thought we’d lost you forever.”

 

“Allura, how did you do that?” Matt asked her, in awe.

 

“Green helped me. Thank you, Green,” she said, patting the side of the wall.

 

“I’ve been in a coma? That’s ... it’s strange, but I feel like I’ve been here the whole time. Allura, you were reading to me, right? The last thing was, uh, Goldilocks and the Three Bears?”

 

“Yes! You’re right! The others told me those stories were intended for children, but ...”

 

“But you knew I’d like them. You were right,” Pidge said, hugging her again. Then she looked at her brother, who was watching the two of them and struggling to hold back tears. Pidge went to him and took his hand.

 

“You’ve been with me every night, haven’t you? You never gave up on me, even when everyone else said you should let me go.”

 

“Of course I didn’t. You’re my little sister, and —“ Unable to hold it back anymore, Matt burst into loud tears, covering his face with his hands in embarrassment. Pidge went to him, holding him in her thin arms, soothing him. Her eyes now had tears, as well.

 

“Well — well, this is quite a beautiful day, isn’t it?” Allura said, brushing her fingers quickly across her eyes. “But we’d best be heading back home; the others are probably worried sick about us by now.”

 

Matt nodded, and took the controls again, a big smile on his face.

 

“Everyone else is okay?”

 

Allura nodded. “They’re well, and they’ll be thrilled to see you, my dear.”

 

Allura began telling her little bits about what her parents, as well each member of Voltron had been up to, in her absence. Pidge still had so many questions, her mind struggling to piece together all that she had missed during her slumber.

 

They landed in the hangar, and Pidge pressed her nose against the window, looking out at them anxiously.

 

All three of them were sitting on the ground, cross-legged, and holding each others’ hands. Lance had his head on Keith’s shoulder, but it snapped up once green settled to earth. Keith and Lance got to their feet, then each took a arm of Hunk’s and pulled him up, steadying him, before making their way cautiously to the lion.

 

Pidge smiled, and asked Allura and Matt to help get off of her ship, as her legs were still rubbery-weak.

 

During the days that they had been in space, Lance would often talk about wanting a parade, a big, flashy celebration to mark their return home.

 

Well, she was returning home, but she couldn’t see how a parade would outrank THIS: all of her friends, her family, anxiously waiting at the bottom of the ramp.

 

A parade?

 

The faces of the others, as she stepped off of her lion, was more than enough.


End file.
